Runes
Runes are items in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor that add powerful buffs to Celebrimbor's bow Azkâr, Talion's dagger Acharn, and Talion's sword Urfael. These runes can be obtained by vanquishing enemy Nemeses. Exploiting the weaknesses of an enemy will influence the type of runes they drop, and combining different runes will increase the power of Talion's weapons in different ways. Obtaining Runes Whenever Talion slays an enemy Uruk Nemesis, it may drop a rune which Talion can use to upgrade his weapons. Every Nemesis has certain weaknesses, such as a vulnerability to attacks from mounts or stealth takedowns, that can be exploited to obtain specific runes. For instance, if the player kills an enemy captain that has a weakness to stealth using a stealth takedown, the player will receive a stealth related rune. Rune levels are based on the level of the mob plus the following: +2 for War Chief +1 for Knowing Weakness/Strengths (Intel) +1 for Death Threat (Issue a Death Threat - Tier 3) *EPIC rune is NOT guaranteed for War Chief (though is a high percentage)... or this could be when one kills a Chief and having his living/ present bodyguard gets promoted to Chief.. who is then killed before he escapes! +1 for Exploiting Fear / Hatred (Use fire, flies, beasts, whatever when listed) +1 for Revenge (having been killed by them before) Example of MAX Level 26 rune: Level 20 (+20) + Chief (+2) + Threat (+1) + Knowing (+1) + Exploiting (+1) + Revenge (+1) It should be noted however that a level 26 rune is no different from a level 25 rune. Epic Runes Epic runes are extremely powerful runes that can be obtained from Uruk warchiefs or captains who have been threatened. To obtain these epic runes from captains, Talion must first dominate a Uruk, who must then be forced to deliver a death threat to a captain. This captain will learn that Talion is coming after him, and will prepare himself accordingly by surrounding himself with bodyguards. The captain will drop an epic rune by chance upon death. This also applies for Warchiefs, the only difference is that to threaten them you have to use a captain and no normal Uruk. it is also likely but rare to obtain epic runes without using death threats, the higher level an Uruk captain or warchief is then the more chance they have to drop an epic rune, however warchiefs are more likely to drop an epic rune then a captain, getting vengeance a captain or warchief that has previously killed Talion also increases the odds. Story mode is also known to give Talion epic runes on certain occasions. There are also some exclusive epic runes are which are only obtained through pre ordering the game, completing DLC Orc warband missions or through having a WBID account (see below for exclusive runes). Applying Runes The player is able to add runes to Talion's weapons through the weapon upgrade menu. Every weapon can be upgraded with several runes, and these runes can be combined to make Talion's weapons even more legendary. List of Runes The following list is not complete. Acharn (Dagger runes) Azkâr (Bow runes) Urfael (Sword runes) Exclusive Runes Gallery Talion collecting rune from body.png|Talion collecting a rune Talion picking up a sword rune.gif|An animation of Talion picking up a sword rune (click to view) Talion picking up a bow rune.gif|An animation of Talion picking up a bow rune (click to view) de:Runen fr:Rune pt-br:Runas * Category:Items